As the brain and the core of the electric powertrain, the traction inverter is an essential part of electric vehicles (EVs). It controls the power conversion from DC to AC between the electric motor and the high-voltage battery to enable effective propulsion and regenerative braking. Strong and scalable inverter testing solutions are becoming more essential as EV adoption rises, particularly in developing nations like India. In India, traditional testing techniques that use actual batteries and e-motors present several difficulties, such as significant safety hazards, inadequate infrastructure, expensive battery prices, and a shortage of prototype-grade parts.
This paper presents a comprehensive approach for traction inverter validation using the AVL Inverter TS™ system incorporating an advanced Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHiL) test system based on e-motor emulation technology. It enables safe, efficient, and reliable testing eradicating the need for actual batteries or mechanical loads. Testing across signal and power levels and the validation of both inverter hardware and software under real-world driving scenarios can be facilitated with proposed test system. Indian OEM challenges like reduction in battery development costs, ensuring high replication precision, and managing thermal and power instability in early-stage prototypes are primary focus areas for this test system.
With the Inverter TS, various motor types (IM, EESM, PMSM), switching strategies, and SiC based 800V architectures with different control architectures can be emulated and validated, which can further be optimized for powertrain efficiency. Inverter efficiency maps can be derived and fast control strategy can be iterated which facilitates the the overall drivetrain optimization. This paper focus on how adopting such emulation test methodologies can help EV developers to overcome infrastructure gaps, reduce time-to-market, and enhance powertrain efficiency at a lower cost.